“I trained so hard for this fight,” said Bisping, who had a black eye patch over his right eye. “And not only that, it's hard for the people of Manchester and the people of the U.K. to part ways with their hard-earned money to buy a ticket, so I apologize to all the fans and everybody who bought a ticket.”

Back in May, doctors discovered Bisping competed in consecutive fights against Vitor Belfort and Alan Belcher with a detached retina in his right eye. The injury slipped by unnoticed because Bisping already had his annual UFC mandated eye exam.

“I was fearing the worst,” Bisping said. “I was fearing that they would say a detached retina, and possibly a career-ending injury. So the stubborn old fool inside of me said, ‘I'll do it later, I'll do it later.' When the injury regressed to where I literally couldn't see my hand in front of my face, that's when I thought, OK, that is enough.”

Bisping underwent surgery later that month to repair the eye damage. Everything seemed fine. He was cleared to train and then cleared to spar until last Tuesday when he started having vision problems during training at Erik Paulson's CSW gym in Fullerton.

Bisping's doctors informed him that the retina had re-detached and he would require another surgery. During the second surgery, surgeons discovered an influx of scar tissue that had developed around the damaged retina. As a result, they were not only forced to cut away the scar tissue, but remove a piece of Bisping's retina as well. When he awoke from surgery, Bisping found out his situation was far more severe than first expected. Best-case scenario, it'd be at least three months before Bisping could even begin to think about exercising. Worse-case, his career might be over.

Bisping got a call from UFC president Dana White the next morning.

“He said, ‘Yeah, you're not fighting in Manchester,'
” Bisping said. “I was devastated. Then he said, ‘You've got a ways to go if you're ever going to fight again.' Then I was just completely in shock. This is who I am. This is what I do. It defines who I am as a person.”

Bisping's doctors have been encouraged by his progress since the surgery.

“As long as (my eye) heals well and I don't develop more scar tissue, it should be fine,” Bisping said. “I should be able to fight, but I've just got to take it easy. In hindsight, I was guilty of pushing it too far, too much too soon.”

Lyoto Machida is stepping in to replace Bisping against Munoz.

NOTES

The feud between Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen has been brewing for the past few years. The fighters hurl insults at each other at every turn in interviews and on Twitter. It seems inevitable that they would meet inside the octagon. Silva confronted Sonnen at the Mr. Olympia festivities Saturday in Las Vegas. An altercation ensued with each camp holding back the fighters as they hurled insults and threats.

“Everything you said about me will have a payback,” Silva said on a video of the altercation. ...

Uriah Hall scored one stunning knockout after the other during his run to the finals of “The Ultimate Fighter 17.” He was one of the most-hyped fighters to come out of the franchise. Then came back-to-back split decision losses to Kelvin Gastellum in “The Ultimate Fighter 17” finals and to John Howard at UFC Fight Night 26 in August. Those lackluster efforts have put Hall in the position where he will be fighting for his career his next time out.

“I don't ever think of matches as the loser leaves town unless you're talking about Uriah Hall's next fight,” White said in a recent scrum with reporters in Brazil. “Uriah Hall needs to win a fight or Uriah Hall will be leaving town.”

Hall is expected to face Chris Leben at UFC 168 on Dec. 28 in Las Vegas.